Vodafone To Sell Japanese Operations To Softbank

Vodafone LogoThe big news doing the rounds this weekend is that Vodafone has finally decided to quit the Japanese market, after what can best be described as a very poor showing. Forbes reports that Softbank Corp (which is a telco/media company) is looking to buy Vodafone’s 98% stake in Vodafone Japan, after all the due diligence stuff of course. The price being bandied about is 5 billion pounds, and the market welcomed the news with Vodafone’s shares rising sharply. Of course, this comes after Vodafone decided to write down its assets by 28 billion pounds.
This is a change of course for Vodafone, which has spent the last several years trying to get a “global footprint” and recently resisted calls from major shareholders to sell it US operations (Verizon Wireless). Vodafone Japan has improved in recent months — it’s subscriber base has stopped plummeting — but it’s still far from doing well. RCRNews writes: “According to Vodafone’s most recent financial filings, the operator added 123,000 proportionate net customers in Japan, the highest number since the first quarter of 2004. Its churn rate was down from 19.1 percent in the third quarter of 2005, reaching 17.6 percent. Blended average revenue per user was down 3.7 percent, which pushed service revenue down 4.5 percent.” It also talks of rumors that Vodafone will sell its stake in Verizon Wireless, but so far I’ve only heard that it was being pressured to do so.
Britain’s Sunday Telegraph claims Vodafone is looking at giving a special dividend to shareholders, quoting CEO Arun Sarin. “Just look at our track record. It is to return money to shareholders. We are returning

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